AI and Plagiarism

If the words did not come from your own head, then they are not yours.

AI cannot help you in this class — it can only hurt your grade.  Every semester, I get a couple students who think "I missed so much class, and I need an amazing paper . . . so I'll use AI to bring up my grade."  And then they get caught, and then I have no choice but to give a failing grade.  I cannot guarantee that I can catch all AI, but I can guarantee that I will only grade your paper if I have proof that you personally wrote it.  What is that proof?  The version histories required with every assignment.  And the in-class activities where you describe your work.  If you can't describe your research and you don't have a version history for your paper, you'll get a zero.

Following this policy:

• Google Docs spellcheck and grammar suggestions are okay to use — they don't alter your writing style.

• You MUST cite your sources whenever you provide outside information or quotes in your paper.  You need to show where your information came from — either tell us the author of your source, or tell us when you personally experienced what you're describing.

• Do NOT use any AI platform to organize, outline, compose, or edit your writing assignments.  You are required to do your own thinking, organizing, and drafting.

• Do NOT use Grammarly, Gemini, Copilot, or similar platforms to revise your writing for this course.  I want to see how you write so I can offer effective feedback.  Please note that I do not take off any points for grammar or spelling or typos.  Also, materials that have been revised by these AI-powered editors can easily be mistaken for text that's been composed by AI text — and that will look like plagiarism.

• Do NOT let other people edit your writing for you.  It's perfectly okay to have someone read over your paper and provided suggestions, but you must make any changes yourself.

• Do NOT reuse papers for multiple courses.  If you write a paper for one class and then submit the same work for another class, then you're plagiarizing yourself.